South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s decision to boycott the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, saying “boycott politics doesn’t work.”
Trump recently announced that no US officials would attend the leaders’ summit later this month, citing widely discredited claims that white South Africans are being persecuted.
Speaking to reporters outside Parliament, President Ramaphosa described the move as “America’s loss,” adding that the G20 summit will go ahead successfully without US participation.
“Boycotting never achieves anything of great impact, because decisions will be taken that will move the various issues ahead,” Ramaphosa said, as reported by AFP.
The summit, scheduled for 22–23 November, will be the first-ever G20 meeting hosted on African soil, with South Africa serving as the current chair of the group of the world’s largest economies.
Trump, in a series of posts on social media, called it a “total disgrace” that South Africa was hosting the summit. He further claimed that “Afrikaners are being killed and their land confiscated,” allegations South Africa’s government has firmly rejected as false and unsupported by credible evidence.
Ramaphosa stressed that the absence of the US delegation would not derail discussions, saying the G20 remains focused on advancing global economic cooperation and equitable development.
Trump has reportedly chosen to send Vice President JD Vance in his place, while another ally, Argentina’s President Javier Milei, has also decided to skip the event and will send Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno instead.
South Africa’s government has reiterated that no white-owned farms have been seized without compensation, and that narratives of a “white genocide” are politically motivated misinformation.